Structures built around people, not purpose. Reporting lines drawn to keep the peace because redefining roles feels uncomfortable. Leaders with two direct reports while others juggle twenty. Titles that don’t quite match responsibilities.
You’ve seen this, too.
Everything looks fine. Everyone has a place. In reality, it’s a quiet chaos. The kind that drains energy, slows decisions, and leaves no one accountable.
Change management is key in every structural change. However, most design failures don’t come from resistance. They come from comfort. From trying to make the structure fit the people we already have, instead of the work we actually need. That’s when leaders realize: the structure isn’t the problem. The problem is the illusion of structure – the belief that rearranging boxes will somehow change behavior. But behavior doesn’t follow boxes. It follows clarity, connection, and purpose.
I’ve learned this too. Now watch my world changing!
The Building Blocks of Effective Organization Design
Good organization design isn’t about redrawing charts. It’s about creating the conditions for people to succeed – to think clearly, decide confidently, and connect their work to something larger.
Jay Galbraith’s Star Model explains this well: structure is only one piece. True performance comes from alignment between five elements – strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and people.
- Strategy defines where we’re going and what we’re trying to achieve.
- Structure shapes how we group work and where decisions get made.
- Processes describe how information and collaboration flow across the organization.
- Rewards determine what behaviors and outcomes are recognized and reinforced.
- People bring the skills, capabilities, and mindsets that make it all real.
Change one point of the star, and the others move. Adjust structure but ignore decision-making or rewards, and old habits will resurface.
That’s why sustainable design is more about conversation than configuration – aligning how people think, not just where they sit.
Designing for Collaboration and Clarity
Every structure creates boundaries – but if we don’t design the spaces between them, those boundaries become walls. Leaders often say, “we need to break down silos.” Silos aren’t the real problem – misaligned design is.
Collaboration doesn’t happen because we put the word on a wall in vivid red ink. It happens because we make it easy and necessary – through shared goals, trust, and roles (GPO) that bridge divisions.
The matrix structure often gets blamed for slowing things down – and yes, the matrix stucture is demanding. It forces conversations about trade-offs between equally valid priorities; local versus global, speed versus consistency, revenue versus efficiency.
Clarity in decision-making matters more than control. People can live with complexity, but they can’t live with confusion.
The most effective organizations use what’s sometimes called the “golden vote” principle – one clearly defined role holds final accountability, after structured collaboration has taken place. This balance – between inclusiveness and decisiveness – allows organizations to move quickly without losing alignment.
When collaboration and decision-making are designed this way, people stop wasting energy negotiating boundaries or re-litigating decisions. They can focus on the work that truly matters.
Activation: Where Design Starts Living
The real test of design begins after the announcement, when people start asking, “What does this mean for me?”
Design only becomes real when people begin working differently; when new conversations happen, decisions move faster, and collaboration feels easier.
Every structural choice asks people to think, relate, and behave differently. This is where change management meets design.
A few principles make a real difference:
- Start with readiness. Assess how much change capacity the organization truly has – what other initiatives are competing for attention, what’s the current level of trust, and how resilient people feel.
- Invest in sponsorship. Design work is at risk when leadership energy runs out after the announcement. Sustained, visible commitment keeps momentum alive.
- Don’t under-resource the infrastructure. Activation requires time, communication, training, feedback loops, and ongoing governance; enthusiasm alone isn’t enough.
- Build in feedback and adjustment. The most effective organizations regularly review their design against real outcomes and aren’t afraid to refine it.
When leaders do this, design stops being a one-time reorg and becomes a continuous alignment between strategy, structure, and people.
Design is About Connection
The longer I work with organizations, the more I see that design is not about control – it’s about connection. We can have the most elegant structures and processes in the world, but if people don’t feel part of something meaningful, none of it sticks.
Designing an organization is ultimately an act of trust – trust that people will use clarity and freedom wisely, that they’ll learn, collaborate, and adapt together.
And when that happens – when structure, process, and purpose finally align – you can feel it. Meetings feel lighter. Decisions are faster. People stop protecting their territory and start protecting their shared goals.
That’s when you know the design is working – not because it looks good on paper, but because it feels right in practice.
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